Archive for the ‘Obama’ tag
Just a t-shirt
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Every Martin Luther King Day over the last few years, plus as many days as possible during February (Black History Month,) I have been wearing the shirt above and today is no exception. Mine is actually black, in some ways more fitting, but I wish I had seen the version above in wine-red first.
I bought it from the wonderful people at UrbanProfile.com, who also offer a wide range of other African-American themed t-shirts. For the inauguration this year, you could be wearing a shirt with the map of U.S.A. stamped “Under New Management” for example.
This particular shirt gets some of the strangest looks, not to mention some interesting reactions. This morning while lying down on my chiropractor’s adjustment bed, I noticed him reading the back out loud. He later insisted on reading the front before discussing my ever ongoing need for additional treatment.
Last year, while having breakfast out, a woman behind me couldn’t even wait that long and tapped me on the shoulder to ask if I could turn around for her to see the front!
What is on the back is a 1966 quote from writer James Baldwin. It reads;
America has created a state of mood, which is dangerous for the world. In order to buy and sell men like cattle one had to pretend they were cattle. Being Christian knowing it was wrong; they had to pretend it was not done to men but to animals. What has happened is that America, which use to buy and sell black men, still isn’t sure if they are animals or not.
But the most interesting reactions are usually drawn to the front, be it a supermarket cashier trying to read while avoiding my eyes, an African-American mother with kids being shocked first, then slowly realizing the point and looking up at me proudly and finally a young white dude that wanted to fight me, as he found it offensive.
Front of the shirt has a copy of an advertisement from Charlestown, carrying a date of July 24th, 1769. The text reads:
TO BE SOLD, ON THURSDAY THE THIRD DAY OF AUGUST NEXT, A CARGO OF NINETY-FOUR PRIME, HEALTHY NEGROES, CONSISTING OF THIRTY-NINE MEN, FIFTEEN BOYS, TWENTY-FOUR WOMEN, AND SIXTEEN GIRLS. JUST ARRIVED IN THE BRIGANTINE DEMBIA, FROM SIERRA-LEON, BY DAVID & JOHN DEAS.
I don’t wear the shirt to shock people. I wear it as a reminder. And it’s not just a reminder of look what YOU have done; it’s something we need to remember that many of us have also. For it, still goes on today, in many parts of the world, in many different forms.
Yes, as a nation, the United States needs to be held responsible for many atrocities, including its near annihilation of the first-nations, organized and sanctioned slavery of millions, multiple wars and military campaigns around the globe causing lives, economic catastrophe, famine, disease, and theft of other nation’ resources by force or deceit.
But if we start to hold such high standards, we better be prepared to look in the mirror to examine our own past, review our current conduct and keep an eye on the future.
McCain 1 – Obama 0
Greg Craig - Barack Obama's Policy Advisor
Greg Craig would need to do MUCH better if his candidate wants any chance of winning upcoming debates. He has played the lead role in preparing Obama for his debates and even posed as McCain while they practiced.
Obama performed so poorly against a much weaker candidate, I feel obliged to offer a few points as a one time aspiring politician with some media training for such occasions:
- Get your candidate in a jacket that is at least half a size too big for him. His thin, long stature could use the puffing up. Navy suits look Presidential.
- Avoid a tie with small print. Light blue or red only and find someone in the campaign that can tie a perfectly straight and long half or full Windsor necktie.
- When your opponent is deliberately avoiding looking at you, do not look at him as it comes across like you are begging to have a confrontation and he doesn’t see you as a worthy adversary.
- If your opponent is successful at smiling confidently while you make your best points, return the favor and smile while he’s making his.
- Stop enforcing what you have in common; unless you are so much better, he has a longer record and better credentials.
- Take your shots while he lobs all those softballs (and gaffs) at you immediately and not a minute later when you remembered the right answer. He’s 72; you can’t afford to look 82!
- Take that cane out of your ass and relax, be mildly animated and exude confidence.
Better luck next time!
Tough yet very very soft
With hundreds of thousands of active blogs out there, who needs another one that focuses on all the doom and gloom of daily life?
Who cares if we give our money to banks to hold, they occasionally lend it back to us at outrageous interest rates, pay mind-blowing salaries out of it to their executives and dividends to their largest share-holders. Then when we need it back they say “oops, it looks like we may not have it anymore…could you bail us out with your tax money and basically just pay yourselves?”
Who cares if one candidate holds three separate news conferences in a day to put out three very different messages about the economy as the market plunges further while the other refuses to carry the “change” flag by pointing out the real reasons behind the collapse?
Who cares if an Israeli cabinet minister thinks kidnapping another country’s president is a good idea and an Iranian one keeps coming up with fake degrees to keep his job?
Not this blog! At least not at this very moment, before I change my mind! It’s time for only good news. We’re talking good words, thoughts and deeds. Things like; “sanctuary”, “quality time”, “extra fibers” and “softness.”
Aren’t those nice things? Well, that’s what the “toilet-paper researchers” have developed for us and it will be available as of Monday.
Yes, these may be tough times on many fronts. But at least for “women 45 and older”, there will be something soft available not only for its intended uses, but perhaps for other times also, such as crying when you open your next 401(K) statement.
